Meet Kim Turnbull- millennial model, Rocco Ritchie’s girlfriend and one to watch in the fashion world for 2017

16 year-old Kim Turnbull has signed with respected London modelling agency Select Model Management, making her the latest teenager to join the new-generation London Fashion Week set.

It’s thought that the signing was made primarily off the back of Turnbull’s Instagram pictures (gone are the days when a model’s only chance of getting scouted was to hang around nonchalantly at a shopping centre) and also following a series of starter shoots with Illustrated People (an of-the-moment streetwear brand based in East London), Puma and i-D magazine.

Turnbull, whose streetwise sense of personal style has already attracted over 5,000 followers to her Instagram page, is believed to be dating Rocco Ritchie, the 16 year-old son of Guy Ritchie and Madonna, after he made a permanent move to London in the summer following a lengthy custody battle between his parents.

In the last week, Kim has shared several pictures of herself, Rocco, Madonna and his siblings skiing in Verbier, and she has previously been spotted by overzealous paparazzi going for coffee with Ritchie and his best friend Brooklyn Beckham on many occasions.

The couple have also, however, been savvy networkers attending several high profile fashion parties together last season, including a LOVE Magazine and Marc Jacobs-hosted bash, and a Dazed & Confused party in association with Calvin Klein, giving them the opportunity to meet influential editors like LOVE’s Katie Grand. We’ll expect to see Turnbull following in the footsteps of Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner and Kaia Gerber in becoming Grand’s next model protegee, then?

Kim’s own family tree is full of creatives too; her grandfather was the lauded Scottish sculptor William Turnball and her grandmother was Kim Lim, the Singaporean artist, after whom she is named. Her father and uncle, Johnny and Alex Turnbull, were in the post-punk band 23 Skidoo, and Johnny produced the 2011 documentary about his father’s work, Beyond Time, which Jude Law narrated.

Kim has already made her runway debut, walking in the Maharishi show at the London Collections: Men last January. But after signing with Select, which also manages the careers of Daisy Lowe, Sam Rollinson and Amanda De Cadenet, it’s likely that she’ll make an exclusive appearance for a major designer at the upcoming fashion weeks in February, no doubt leading to a subsequent lucrative campaign deal. Select’s strategic handling of their new client Sofia Richie, daughter of Lionel Richie, for example, saw her shoot from relative obscurity to become an Instagram star with over 1.8 million followers, making her catwalk debut at Chanel, all in the last six months.

Dolce and Gabbana, too, released their SS17 campaign imagery yesterday starring 20 year-old actress and social media sensation Zendaya, as well as half a dozen other teenagers with celebrity parents and freshly-inked modelling contracts, including Presley Gerber (son of Cindy Crawford and Randy Gerber) plus Rafferty Law (son of Jude Law and Sadie Frost).

Over the next few years some will no doubt break off to become actors, designers, photographers and more, but one thing is for sure right now; the next fashion generation is coming of age - and 2017 is their breakthrough moment.